| Summary/Abstract |
A nation’s prosperity depends on its competitiveness, which is based on the productivity with which it produces goods and services. Economists and biodiversity conservationists tend to agree on one central point regarding the relationship between the economy and biodiversity, that the damage to biodiversity increases dramatically in the course of economic development until, at a certain level of wealth, opportunities for biodiversity conservation can potentially be improved. There is also strong agreement about the central importance of development for the eradication of poverty. Among its many other terrible effects, poverty is one of the major contributors to stress on biodiversity. Economists emphasize the contribution of economic growth to providing the resources needed for biodiversity conservation, improving access to environment friendly technologies, and, with increases in standard of living, providing the flexibility societies need to make biodiversity and development trade-offs more favorable to biodiversity conservation.
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